I was talking with a marketing agency owner today about one of their prospective clients. The agency owner was talking about the benefits of Inbound Marketing. He was calculating conversion rates. Figuring the ROI. Doing the math. Planning on doing the calculations to tell his (hopefully) new client how many views, blog posts, clicks, landing pages, forms, CTA's, yada, yada, yada. Look at this graphic. Dale Berkebile created this graphic a while back to help people visualize the steps that someone takes as they move from searching to buying.

< Inbound

< Online Referral

< Evangelist's Introduction

Did you notice that Dale designed this with the prospect doing the work? They search. They visit. They see. It's truly designed for Inbound Marketers. I've used the graphic many times to establish the mindset. OK. So, this article's not really about inbound marketing.

I use it for another reason. As you know, I've been a fan of inbound marketing for a while, but I've never suggested that inbound marketing is all that you need and Dale's funnel (nice ring, don't you think?) can actually be used to depict your entire sales funnel.

Look at the examples to the right of Dale's graphic and think of these scenarios. Pretend that you build a landing page that was aimed at salespeople that wanted to be sales rock stars. Pretend also that somebody reads this article, clicks on the landing page link and forwards it to his friend with a note that reads, "You should check this out!" Look at Dale's graphic. If these numbers are accurate, your chances of closing your reader's friend is 1 in 64, 8 times better than the inbound searcher that starts at the top of your funnel. Now, think about what happens when one of your happy evangelists sends a referral your way or you ask for and get one. The referral doesn't have to search, find, see, land or fill out a form. Using Dale's funnel, you've got a 1 in 16 chance of closing this customer, which is 32 times better than an inbound searcher. Now, notice that both online referrals and evangelist's introductions are inbound.

Here's my point. Definitely get started with inbound, but don't forget to have welcome signs at other points in your funnel!

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Good point Rick. Referrals have the advantage of a compressed funnel and the all-important personal backing. I do think too many inbounders think that conversion rates in the inbound funnel are somehow set in stone, however, and they're not. What they fail to realize is that you can better the odds by nailing your target personas, adapting messaging and content to meet their needs, distributing content in their favorite channels, A/B testing emails and landing pages, lead nurturing, lead scoring and by developing an aligned sales/marketing process. If you do all of these things and prove it, that will lead to more referrals.

Reminded of what my grandmother told me when she carted me around to all of her business meetings in 1970s &80's Massachusetts real estate market. "If you want to be found by clients, you've got to get out there-everywhere they are, all the time." She also said ,"Your reputation is everything."

Inbound is just one way to get out there, everywhere, all the time. Referrals are based on your reputation.

Rick Roberge

@jmctigue You guys oughta know! The interesting thing about @kuno is that they're always focused on what matters. There client's sales. What's the sense of doing anything if it doesn't translate to sales?

We should nickname @minetmarketing "Queen of Analogies"... Dating, Blackjack, how many others. That's what allows her to interpret inbound, sales, etc. into her prospect's language.

@John your thoughts are great at giving the short and sweet version of what make successful inbound. I like the best Odds in the House @Carole. Inbound is the best odds!

Rick thanks for the call out in this one. I do agree that your point with this article is often overlooked by my inbound marketers.

Although all the steps to inbound are important… Introductions quickly shorten the salescycle. 8 times better introduction is something not talked about much. Then the Evangelist Introduction bumping things to the 32 times better, why isn't everyone talking about this?

This is where the disconnect lies. Honing these skills (especially as @John mentioned).

Good post, Rick. The problem with inbound is largely how it's interpreted. Many times people see the words "integrated" and "all-in-one" and get wrapped up in trying to do EVERYTHING, when, to Rick's point, not everything always makes sense for your audience. What drives sales? What can you do to align with these behaviors? Inbound is the launching pad, but you still need the right directional coordinates to get where you need to go.

John, I'm gonna largely agree and slightly disagree. It is easy to get distracted by all-in-one and sometimes we try to do too much too soon all at once and yes, we should prioritize and focus on what's important today. However, inbound isn't always the launching pad. One of the questions that David is going to ask in our interview (http://www.rickroberge.com/how-to-get-referrals) is, "How can you use referrals to grow inbound and inbound to grow referrals? If a company is already getting a steady stream of referrals, they could use it as a launching pad to grow inbound. If a blogger already has a huge following, he could use his inbound to grow referrals. Make sense?

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